Addams Hill
by JQuinzelle
Summary: Decades after the children grew up and left the Addams Mansion, Pubert returns to the family home. Telling his parents of his death and reincarnation, Gomez and Morticia are intrigued enough to want to visit this strange land. Silent Hill will reunite the Addams Family for a vacation like no other.
1. Chapter 1 - The Addams Mansion

In a town with no name, on a hill long past due, the Addams Mansion claims its dominion over death, its solemn shadow under a sadistic summer sun, cast long upon the grieving grass. A tall, twisted home of aged wood and cobwebs, the Addams Mansion is testament of an undying family of an unique bond. But all is not well with the clan that is Addams, as there is a sorrow unlike that which would be embraced, and a burden of loss, yet not of death which would be welcomed.

Within the rustic rooms of this eccentric collection of haunted halls and bizarre trinkets, a fragmented family sulks in the day room of this dreadful dwelling. On his throne, the lord of lunacy, Gomez Addams, in his smoking jacket and slippers, slouches without majesty, burning through cigars. His tired gaze crawls across the dust and lion pelt rug, toward a slender seductress of sin. A lady of love and longing, Morticia Addams is lost in the apparition of a budding rose among her bed of sticks and thorns. The bud, no bigger than a coin, contrasts in screams against the morbid palette of the mansion.

Morticia sighs and the bud opens slightly. A drop of depression, a silent tear, rolls from the enigmatic eye.

"Bubala." Morticia whispers across the floor.

Gomez puffs his cigar with little enthusiasm for the vice, as he turns in his chair toward Morticia.

"Yes, my dear?" Gomez speaks in a haze of smoke.

"I miss the children." Morticia picks up a pair of rusted scissors, and brings the blades to the base of the bud.

Gomez puffs as he speaks, "What can we do? They grow up so fast."

Morticia closes the scissor blades slightly,"I just never thought it'd happen to us."

"And what is that, dear?" Gomez says as he tosses the cigar end carelessly toward a smoldering pile of tobacco. Gomez takes a fresh cigar from his smoking jacket, never bothering to admire the aroma, as he lights it with a match and three tranquil puffs.

"Wednesday is still being tortured by the CIA." Morticia reminds Gomez.

Gomez chuckles, "She loves that waterboarding."

Morticia remembers, "Pugsly, oh, poor Pugsly."

Gomez lowers his eyes, "A fate worst than death."

Morticia sniffles, "How could he?"

Gomez, feeling morose Morticia melt on him, stands from his chair, approaching her with a trail of smoke in his wake.

Morticia lowers the scissors as Gomez puts his hands on her night clad waist.

Gomez whispers in her ear, "He chose white picket fences and puppies in suburbia, not us."

Morticia faces Gomez, "We could have convinced him or-"

"Morticia, my love, my soul, as natural as a hearse to the graveyard, Pugsly found his way."

Morticia weeps into Gomez's chest, his arms accepting her pain.

"Not to cry, my dear." Gomez says in comforting chords, "We Addams, we are who we are."

Morticia looks deep into Gomez grim gaze, "We are who we are."

With that, Morticia turns to the budding rose, picking up the instrument of its destruction, and snipping the bud at the base. The bud rolls beside Morticia's boot.

A blood-chilling scream resonates from within the halls of the mansion; the home's doorbell. The scream beckons Gomez's attention in curiosity.

"Odd." Gomez says, "That doorbell hasn't rang in a decade. Lurch!"

"Gomez, please." Morticia begins, "Lurch is no longer with us, remember?"

Gomez puffs on his cigar to find it no longer smokes, using a magically manifested match to light the end. Gomez ponders the possibilities, "Tax collectors?"

"In the dungeon." Morticia replies.

"Of course!" Gomez declares with a smack to his forehead by palm, "My new model probably arrived."

"Model?" Morticia inquires, "As in train model? I thought you abandoned those."

"How could I detonate with such disarray?" Gomez responds, "Every time I blew up a train, I'd remember our family gatherings. The explosions! The calamity! The body parts! Yet, I feel something will change. The Addams family is not yet finished!"

The screaming doorbell demands attention. Gomez takes Morticia's pallid hand, the cigar firm in his mouth, wafting smoke, as he guides her down a maze of corridors toward the entrance. The front door of the mansion, once a sturdy wooden gate, now a weave of webs and desolate dust. Gomez and Morticia hesitate to open the portal to the outside realm.

The doorbell screams. Gomez smokes.

"Aren't you going to answer?" Morticia asks.

"Yes, I'm just admiring the fresh cobwebs." Gomez replies with uncertainty.

Morticia smiles at Gomez, "A patron of the natural arts all of the sudden?"

Suddenly, a familiar voice, broken and deep, seductive and sinister, calls from beyond the door.

"Mother? Father?" the voice begs for attention.

Morticia looks at Gomez in disbelief, "That sounded like..."

Without further hesitation, Gomez lunges for the door handle, ignoring the cigar falling from his gaping mouth. He throws open the door to a flood of unwanted, eye abusive light, to the sight of a beloved demon.

A slender, suave, handsome man in a white suit and black, pinstripe shirt, Pubert Addams, smiles at the Addams couple, his Gomez style mustache curving with his lip. Pubert, the Addams family youngest son, holds his arms out to welcome the unconditional embrace.

Gomez rushes into Pubert's arms, nearly tackling Pubert with excitement. Pubert and Gomez laugh as they embrace and exchange friendly remarks.

Morticia stands as a statue with threads of mascara ran tears descending from her stare.

"Pubert!" Gomez exclaims, "I thought you were dead! We thought you were dead."

"Wishful thinking, father, but not incorrect," Pubert explains, "I did die and was buried. An accident at the train yard."

Pubert lowers his shirt collar to reveal the stitches and scar which holds Pubert's head on his body.

"Always wanted to try decapitation." Gomez says, "It's supposed to relieve migraines."

Pubert chuckles as he looks toward Morticia.

"Mother?" Pubert calls to her, "You look dreadful."

To that, Morticia breaks a tearful smile at Pubert, saying in a cracking voice, "Welcome home, son."

Pubert ascends the sickly steps into the maniacal mansion, Gomez at his side with a fresh cigar between his smiling lips, and embraces his mother with the love of resurrection, kissing her on her wet cheek.

Storm clouds gather once again over the hill upon which the Addams Mansion stands, drowning out the joys and laughter of summer, smothering the sun. A terrible wind kicks up, storming dust into devil swirls in the air, leaves running for shelter. Thunder rumbles from the heavens and shakes the earth, the rage of God calling out warning to the natural order of life; the Addams family is reuniting once again.

"And my liver's in a jar!" Pubert declares with a suave chuckle, reclined in Gomez's chair. Gomez, on the love seat beside the shocked queen, he erupts in a smoke infused laughter. Morticia smiles at the madness now cursing the house, for it is now a home once again.

Gomez puffs his cigar and lets the smoke bellow with his words, "We searched for you everywhere, Pubert. We called the mortuaries, the shelters, the shamans. No one knew where you were!"

Pubert smiles warmly, now holding a cracked glass of ancient liquor, "I was in an awful place. Terribly fun."

"And what were you doing in a train yard?" Morticia inquires.

Pubert swirls his glass and drinks, "I've always loved father's trains. Imagine the real thing."

Gomez gets giddy in his seat, as a child on sugar, "Of course! Legitimate locomotives!"

Morticia chuckles slightly, as a cough in her lovely throat, "I've not seen your father so..."

"I live, Morticia!" Gomez shoots out of his seat as a bullet of ash and smoke, "My old, decrepit heart, it beats with the Addams black blood."

Gomez takes Morticia's cold hand, pulling her onto her feet, and places her palm against his racing heart. Morticia feels the excitement.

Gomez turns to Pubert, "What black magick brought you back? I must know!"

Pubert finishes his drink and smiles with malice, "Oh, an evil place by a lake of souls."

"Sounds beautiful." Morticia comments, her hand now under Gomez' jacket, feeling his hot chest.

"What is the name of this paradise?" Gomez asks, knowing the answer will only ignite his creeping curiosity.

Pubert leans forward in his seat, tossing the glass haplessly into a now roaring fireplace, the flames screaming in agony, and whispers so to bring his parents closer, "It's a special place. Called Silent Hill."


	2. Chapter 2 - The Festering

Chapter II: The Festering

The halls of the second floor moan out a fresh breath of decay, as Gomez rushes from room to room. A door slams as another opens, dust dancing in the candlelight, and Pubert stands in the hall, drinking from his ever-filled glass. Pubert knows not what his father seeks, but does understand its importance, for Gomez Addams is not a man without purpose. Not anymore.

Streaks of violet and black, the shades of Gomez's suit, are the only evidence of his haunt, with winds closing each door with the force of excitement.

"Father?" Pubert whispers into the dust, taking a moment to drink after speaking.

From the room furthest down the hall, Gomez responds with a faint yell, "It's here! I know it."

Pubert savors the drink, observing the portraits of Addams past and buried. Petunia Addams; a slender woman sprouting flowers all over her flesh, her mouth in a painful scream. Gonzalez Addams; cursed to be so hideous that the sirens swooned for him. Then they feasted on him. And a blonde, frail sprite of joy lying in a flower bed. Pubert studies the cheerfully deceased woman in the portrait.

"That's my sister," Morticia's downtrodden voice weighs in on Pubert, "Ophelia."

Pubert studies the carefree expression on Ophelia's gentle face, "She looks… happy."

"She was always the white sheep of the family," Morticia approaches the portrait, "We tried everything to help her. Shock treatment, lobotomies, leeches."

Pubert faces his mother with confusion in his eyes, "Why haven't I met her? I mean, she was my aunt. Your sister."

Morticia breaks eye contact with her painted sister, shifting to the flame of a candle, "She, like your brother, Pugsly, chose a more social lifestyle."

"What does that mean?"

Morticia's voice breaks into fragments, "It means, well, it means that we… may never see them again."

Morticia can't resist the welcomed sorrow, that which she finds solace and torture in, as she breaks down in tears. At first, Pubert decides it best to let his mother weep. He senses that she hasn't had a healthy cry in ages, evident by the rage behind those black pupils. But as Morticia's sobbing turns into shortness of breath, Pubert involves his presence by taking her delicate hand.

"Mother?" Pubert brings the cold palm to his cheek, "Did you feel you'd never see me again?"

Morticia sniffles and dries her tears, taking a moment to taste them with pleasure, "All our children disappeared."

"Then, where am I?"

An explosion rocks the second level of the mansion, swaying as if willows in the wind. The coughing and cackling of a demented Gomez, resonating from an approaching cloud of smoke crawling down the hall.

"What is father doing?" Pubert asks as the smoke envelops them both.

Silence as the smoke clears to reveal Gomez in his fine violet, pinstriped suit, standing firm and proud, lit cigar in his mouth. Beside him, a hefty rotted coffin with no seeable way of moving it without strain. Gomez pats the side of the coffin with a waft of smoke and dust.

"He went to bed because he was bored," Gomez chuckles with a puff from his cigar, "But I think it's time for him to wake up. Don't you think, cara mia?"

"Who are we waking up?" Pubert sips his drink with a calm question.

Morticia smiles deviously, "Don't lie. He wasn't bored and you know that."

Gomez lets out a devious laughter, "Yes, my love, you are correct."

"Who?" Pubert demands to know the evil secret the Addams possess in the coffin.

"This man, my boy," Gomez begins his spiel with a pause for his cigar, "He is the bedlam of our boudoir. Wanted in forty-eight states, executed in the other two, this monster is my most beloved brother. A shame you never got to know him, as he did help raise you into the devil before us today."

"Brother?" Pubert drops his glass, "I have an uncle?"

"You were still too young when Wednesday left," Gomez inspects the ritualistic runes carved into the coffin's wood, "After that, my brother lent his soul to the Baphomet and went to bed."

"Are you sure it's wise to wake him?" Morticia feels that the awakening may be too soon, as the other children are still missing. Gomez doesn't need to hear it explained to understand his bewitching wife.

"So, he went a bit mad. Madder, I mean," Gomez chuckles, looking upon Morticia to find her uncertain in his decision, "He lived for the children, mi amor. I feel seeing Pubert would electrify his still heart."

Morticia crosses her arms with a crooked smile, "I'm not going to shoot him again."

"Oh, Morticia, my desire," Gomez produces a crowbar from behind his back, "I figured I could use the crowbar if it came to that."

In an instant of smoke and embers, Gomez spits out his cigar and drives the tip of the crowbar into the crease of the coffin's wood. With grunts and groaning, Gomez forces the coffin to open, but the coffin disobeys.

Pubert steps forward, rolling up the sleeves on his shirt, "Need a hand?"

"Thing is with his new family," Gomez replies.

Pubert laughs, "Not Thing. A hand. Help."

"An Addams never needs help, only treatment," Gomez sneers playfully. Pubert catches the jest in his voice. Gomez lifts his pants leg to reveal a smaller crowbar taped to his calf. Gomez rips the crowbar from his skin, hairs being pulled noisily, without a yelp, and holds the crowbar for Pubert to take.

Pubert takes the crowbar and moves to the opposite side of the coffin. Both Pubert and Gomez insert their ends of the crowbar into moldy and sickly wood. They make eye contact, like a swansong is to be performed, but instead they smile at each other. Gomez feels at home.

With pressure from both ends, the lid of the coffin creaks and creeps. Morticia stares at the box, knowing who is inside and what will come out. She shows neither fear nor concern, but more of a curiosity like the unlucky black cat would. She bites her lower lip slightly when a nail hits the floor.

"One more time, son," Gomez instructs as they both heave and push on the crowbars, trying to pry the lid off the coffin. Finally, the lid gives.

As the dead lumber of the lid crashes at their feet, rats and spiders galore rush out of the dank box, flooding the floor, enveloping everyone's feet briefly. From the infinite darkness within, a yawn as old as night, followed by a crack of the neck, precedes the moon of flesh that is the bald, pallid head emerging from within.

Both of the parent Addams' eyes grow wide, not with terror, but a love reserved for family. Pubert doesn't recognize the man, but sees his parents have a heart for him. Gomez can't help but smile wide, his mustache highlighting the pleasure of the sight.

"Brother!" Gomez blurts out.

"Fester?" Morticia can't help but feel glad to see another familiar face.

Uncle Fester, a bald heap of white skin on a stout frame, clad in furs and leather, is a monument to all deranged things. His eyes like 8-balls sunken in a single shot, they follow Gomez with beady yellow dots deep within, as Gomez approaches Fester. Fester, as always, bears an evil grin.

"I had the craziest dream," Fester speaks through his nasal cavity, "Some guy with a soup can on his head and a big butter knife kills us all. Am I the only one that is hungry?"

Gomez looks at Morticia, then at Pubert, before lunging at his brother for an embrace.

"Fester, I missed you!" Gomez tries not to weep into the dank fur, when a sharp pain enters his breast. Gomez steps back to find a dagger embedded in his chest, right over his heart.

Fester smiles at Gomez, "Missed you too, brother."

Gomez pulls out the dagger from his suit, the tip impaled in a thick cigar. Gomez chuckles, "Dear, dear brother. Get packed. We're going on a trip."

"So soon?" Fester remarks, "I still have coagulation in my legs."

"We must!" Gomez declares.

"Where to?" Fester inquires.

Pubert steps forward, unsure of what to say, "Uncle… Fester?"

Fester turns to Pubert, admiring his ensemble and mustache, taking great pride in the man he sees today.

"Pubert, I'm sorry," Fester can't help but feel a slight guilt, "I shouldn't have left you."

"Water over the bridge," Morticia steps in, "As I'm glad to see you back on your feet."

"Well, technically, for five years I was on my feet," Fester chuckles, "They were dislocated under my back. Nice lumbar support."

The family embraces once more, this time in unison, as they share their dark power of love with one another, feeling themselves becoming whole.

"Silent Hill, huh?" Fester asks as he drills screws into the bottom of his feet, "That's a new one."

Pubert hands Fester fresh screws, "I thought you travelled."

"Yeah, but never to resort towns," Fester giggles as a screw skips, "They gouge you with the prices there."

"It isn't some resort," Pubert inspects the screw driven feet of Fester, "What are you doing?"

"Acupuncture. My shoulder is killing me!" Fester focuses on the current screw, so it won't slip, "Not a resort, huh?"

Pubert sets down the box of screws and moves closer to Fester, "Something bad happened there. Decades ago. It isn't what it seems."

"Sounds like your Aunt Grizelda," Fester chuckles as the power drill whirs, "One moment a corpse, the next she's a goat."

"An ancient evil draws people in," Pubert begins, "Shows them what they need, not want. The Addams need to be united. Or we will perish."

Fester pauses his screwing to think, "An Addams has never feared death."

"This isn't just death," Pubert continues, "It's an eradication. Addams uprooted from every family tree. Gone!"

"From the dust returned…" Fester mutters.

"What is that?" Pubert stands and approaches Fester, "What did you say?"

"Right before waking," Fester ponders, "I heard it right before waking."

"Damn," Pubert responds, "So did I. That's why I had to come back. And bring you all to that town."

"What's it going to do?" Fester mocks, "Give us our family back?"

"Yes!" Pubert remarks, "That's exactly what it'll do."

Fester continues drilling screws into his feet, "And they called me crazy."


	3. Chapter 3 - Madness Manifests

Chapter III: Madness Manifests

Fester carelessly loads the family hearse with bags and cases, tossing each like an infant to discard. He wears his jagged tooth grin, not because of joy, but of psychosis. His eyes follow each luggage piece fall deep into the black of the hearse.

From the threshold of the lunatic asylum which is the Addams home, the star residents, Morticia and Gomez, caress each other in embrace. They feel a surge of darkness within, something lively and sinister, as they watch Pubert with pride.

Pubert, standing stoic with a cigar in mouth, a gift from father, and holding a loaded revolver at his side. His finger tickles the trigger.

"If he starts to froth at the mouth," Morticia declares with little concern, "Just put two in his temple."

"Ah, mi amor," Gomez kisses Morticia across the snowscape of her chest, up her neck, "I love when you are homicidal."

"And I love this passionate Gomez," Morticia replies.

"I feel like a corpse," Gomez kisses Morticia on the mouth, "A corpse risen from the grave."

"So, what's the deal with Uncle?" Pubert asks from his statuesque position.

Without ceasing to load the endless supply of luggage into the void of the hearse, Fester replies as if the question were directed at him, "It's my medicine."

"The gun?" Pubert asks Fester.

"No, that's just a gun," Fester chuckles, "My medicine is what your parents give me."

"Are you sick?"

Fester completely misses his toss toward the hearse as he laughs and wheezes, "Like a loon! But the medicine isn't for that. The meds are to keep me alive."

"And the gun?"

"Side effects," Fester loads the final bag, "They make me a bit murder-y. No biggie."

Pubert laughs, "I don't need a gun to put you down. An Addams is a murder machine on his own."

"Amen, my boy!" Gomez declares from the threshold, "But Fester is an Addams as well."

Fester approaches Pubert, cracking every joint on his body, ending with his knuckles, "I'd feast on your entrails before you beat me down. Guns are faster."

Fester pats Pubert softly on the cheek and climbs the steps into the house, "Car's loaded. Just need to get my—" a sudden gunshot freezes Fester on the steps, "Damn bees."

The bullet falls out of Fester's flesh like an excess refuse, rolling down the steps toward Pubert, whom holds out the gun toward Fester's back.

Morticia and Gomez stare at Pubert as if he were the Devil.

Pubert walks toward his childhood relics, parents and home, without much in the sense of guilt, tossing the gun into the car as he strolls by.

"Thought I'd give it a shot," Pubert says.

Pubert smiles at Fester kindly when passing. To Pubert and the entirety of the Addams clan's history, attempted murder is just as common as plague and curses. These things happen.

Fester returns the smile to the young killer, holding it like a joy by grinding teeth, "I'd aim higher if you want a kill shot."

"I wanted you to bleed out," Pubert retorts.

"I missed you," Fester embraces Pubert to everyone's surprise. Fester begins to weep as he repeats those three words in summons.

Pubert stares at his frozen corpses for parents, immobile rigor mortis, only to animate in looking into each other's eyes for an eternity.

Morticia and Gomez smile at each other with pride.

Within the infinite halls and studies within the mansion, Pubert navigates the labyrinth by heart, knowing the deepest, darkest, and most unholy secrets kept in the over-sized coffin house. Pubert ascends one of the many staircases leading into variations of reality with elevation. This one leads to a red door on an obsidian wall.

Pubert grabs the doorknob without conscience, tearing the door open.

"Sometimes creepy, cookie, and ookie go too far," Pubert stops on the steps, pulling a silver case from his jacket inner pocket. From the case: a cigarette. Pubert lights it and rests, leaning on the wall, "Leave it to my parents to go all Winchester on the home. I just need to piss."

Pubert's voice echoes in the hall.

A cackling resonates in response, almost decrepit.

Pubert smokes silently, staring where the sound seeped.

A voice of gravel, as broken in volume as it is in English begins the conversation, "Are you the boy?"

Pubert smokes.

"Do you fear me boy?" the granulated vocals ask.

"My name is Pubert Addams," Pubert tosses his cigarette aside, "And I fear no witch. Show yourself!"

Silence as Pubert fixes a stray strand of hair back in its place.

"Didn't think so," Pubert lights another cigarette, "I'll bring them to Silent Hill. But you won't harm them. I swear, I'll find your remains and burn them if you do."

Pubert takes a long drag and blows it in front of him, the smoke screening against a familiar face for a moment, that of an old woman.

"I wasn't there," Pubert declares to the specter in the smoke, "But I know what you did to Pugsly. The true reason he denounced his name. Don't tempt me."

"Know what?" the nasal rasp of that familiar Fester voice speaks from behind Pubert, "You got voices too? It's hereditary."

Pubert doesn't turn, smoking still, as Fester climbs the steps.

"I don't remember it being so far to the toilet," Fester stops behind Pubert, "Do you?"

"Go ahead, Fester," Pubert steps aside whilst taking a drag, "I'm finishing this smoke."

"Oh, I don't need to go anymore," Fester chuckles childishly, "Careful on the way down."

"Disgusting," Pubert tosses the cigarette, "Clean it up."

Pubert meets the red door and opens it to darkness. He steps through.

Uncle Fester stares at the black blending into red as the door is slammed shut.

"Do I offend?" Fester asks, smelling himself.

Pubert turns on the light to the magnificent medium sized bathroom. With a tub the size of a child's pool, a toilet and a bidet, this bathroom screams elegance with crystal lined walls. Pubert stands over the oyster layered sink, staring into the gold trimmed mirror. In his hand, a razor.

"I'm sorry mother. Father," Pubert speaks softly, "You've lost two already. I don't want to be your third."

Pubert cuts his palm and places his hand on the glass, "I made a deal. We can all be together."

Reality stops. Reality warps and bends. It bleeds. The walls bleed in the reflection. The walls cry in rust. Demonic chanting crawls from the bowels of this nightmare dimension.

Pubert takes in a breath and vanishes.

"Hey, you got a party in there?" Fester asks the red door, which opens in kind.

Pubert is gone. The bathroom; pristine as before Pubert entered.

"Did he flush himself?" Fester asks as he enters the bathroom, "Hang in there, Pubert! I'm a-coming!"

The door closes and the toilet flushes.


	4. Chapter 4 - Highway to Hell

On the night blanketed, unloved highway stretching through a fearsome forest of terrible trees, a monument to the past, a black classic hearse, tears through reality at high speed, Gomez being the pilot. He holds a cigar firmly in his maniacal grin, eyes like knives piercing the darkness.

Morticia, as passenger, looks deathly calm as she reminisces with the aid of a leather clad photo album. There's a photo she is especially affixed on; that which is a portrait of the entire house family.

"Why do you live in the past, my love?" Gomez turns away from his driving responsibilities to look lovingly into Morticia's eyes, "For we are headed to the future."

"Morticia can time travel?!" Fester declares from within the casket in the back.

"No, brother," Gomez explains and completely turns his body to face the casket, his weight stepping on the gas pedal, "What I meant was that my dear, sweet Morticia is haunted."

"Call Ghostbusters," Fester laughs from his box, "I'm joking. I'll do the same as them, half the price."

Gomez rolls his eyes as he faces the road, swerving in time to miss a cow in the street.

"I don't live in the past!" Morticia lets the frustration burst from her burning heart, "I don't. I just don't know what I am anymore."

"You're an Addams!" Gomez bangs the steering wheel with his fist.

"And what else? I'm no longer mother," Morticia lets it out, "You barely touched me before Pubert returned! I'm barely a wife."

"You're…" Gomez struggles to define, so he changes the topic, "Fester, why did Pubert stay behind again?"

The coffin speaks, "He needed to kill some people or something. Pubert stuff."

"Why Silent Hill?" Morticia asks her beloved.

Gomez answers without answer, "For our family. To bring them back."

"What does that mean, Gomez?"

"That we'll be together again," Gomez states as if reciting.

"You're not being honest," Morticia's accusation hurts Gomez.

"You want honesty?" Gomez closes his eyes and sighs the coming confession, "They're dead!"

Absolute silence in the cabin, save for the tires rolling.

Morticia stares at Gomez with a growing disease of horror reaching across her silken face, water breaking at her eyes.

"What?" Fester bangs the lid of the coffin, "I didn't hear you. And I think I'm stuck."

"Our children. They're dead," Gomez's voice breaks with each breath, "Pubert told me. Wednesday, she was assassinated. Apparently, her cult went viral and became religion. Uncle Sam decided to put her in a cage and throw her in a river."

"She was a witch," Morticia remembers, "Why wasn't she saved?"

"They also, uh," Gomez tries to find a way around the blunt fact, "They put five bullets in her head."

"Wow!" Fester kicks the stubborn coffin lid, "That's a sweet way to go. Now, let me out!"

"And Pugsly?" Morticia fears the answer.

Gomez swallows a shame and coughs.

"Gomez?"

Gomez faces Morticia with the uttermost disappointment and tells her, "Drunk driving."

"What a weenie!" Fester finally forces the lid open and crawls out of the coffin.

"Fester!" Morticia defends her child, as Gomez stares in awe of her beauty and strength, "My boy is no 'weenie'. There must be a mistake. He can't die from—"

"We're hitting that," Fester interrupts, pointing at the road before them.

Morticia and Gomez turn forward to meet the final moment before impact, crashing into a sign, windshield turned into a blanket of shards over the Fester, whom is jettisoned through the window.

The sign lies embedded into the frame of the car, reading, "Welcome to Silent Hill".

Gomez and Morticia groan in their seats.

Fester speaks through a dislocated jaw, "Hey, I think we're here!"

In a barren field of rusted grating with decayed gates, Pubert walks the abyss, led only by the golden lighter in his hand. Held high, the merciful flame illuminates the nothingness. Pubert's footsteps on ancient metals echo in the infinite. Despite how isolated Pubert seems, he knows he is not alone.

Pubert slows his pace as he approaches a birdbath, solitary without guests, the water green with age. Pubert nears the bath, shining his light on the algae water.

"Odd," he observes the green pool, "Nothing is supposed to grow here."

Pubert takes a priceless pen from his jacket inner pocket and dips it in the muck, swirling the water casually, as if stirring a rancid soup. He continues his stirring, waiting for something, anything to happen. Nothing does happen.

"Is this why you resurrected me?" Pubert asks of the water, "Summoned me? I've been lost in this darkness for hours! What do you want from me?"

No response.

Pubert takes his pen, drying it on his jacket cuff, before beginning to replace it in his pocket, when the same rasp of voice beckons him.

"The Addams bloodline is corrupt," the voice declares from nowhere, "A corruption which I hunger for."

"I don't understand," Pubert responds, scratching his temple with the fine instrument, "Why the hassle? Couldn't you feast on me, sparing my family?"

"You are a shell, Pubert. Yes, you are an Addams, but death has judged you as pure." The fractured voice explains, "You did well in bringing them here."

"How am I pure?" Pubert tries to reason this impossibility, "I've killed men. I have sinned."

Darkness falls on Pubert, snuffing out the flame of his lighter. Only the footsteps of a lost soul are heard approaching Pubert, to which he holds his ground. He awaits the steps to get closer, when he takes his pen, a gift from his father when Pubert was a mere boy and throws it with purpose at the source of the footsteps. The footsteps stop.

"I brought you my family because you said we'd reunite, whether it be by life or death," Pubert declares in the dark, "Not to play some stupid supernatural game."

Torches ignite yards into the darkness, illuminating cracked and ruined concrete walls and floor, as they light in Pubert's direction. Upon reaching the son of Gomez, the source of the voice is revealed as an old witch, a decrepit skeleton with bags of flesh hanging from her bones. Embedded in her chest is the writing tool, tip impaled. This hag has a name, but not one Pubert could identify. The demon he has been serving, the gray geriatric, is a familiar face, but wrinkles and disease make her difficult to recognize.

"Game? There is no game here, child," the witch speaks, removing the pen, "Only family and purpose."

Pubert takes the pen from the witch, "What purpose other than to feed you?"

"I wish to be close to my sister," the witch approaches the birdbath behind Pubert, "To see her scream in agony for what she did."

"Sister?" Pubert's curiosity asks.

"The pen. In the water it goes," the witch instructs as she points at the clear water pool.

Pubert stares at the pen, the tip red with blood from the witch, before glancing at the birdbath. He approaches the bath, cradling the pen in his palm. Turning his attention to the witch, as if seeking reassurance, Pubert dips the tip of the pen into the bath.

At first, nothing happens. But soon the water steams, then boils. From the shallow pool, veins of flesh and blood grow, the water tinted red and glowing. The veins move toward the edge of the bath, then cover the circumference as the water ripples.

"See for yourself," the witch holds out a shaking hand toward the mutilated pool.

Pubert investigates the crimson water as it waves and ripples, when an image begins to form. In the image, as it clears, Pubert sees someone he does recognize. The image is that of his mother, Morticia.

Pubert swiftly does the math toward the revelation as to whom the witch is, observing her presence. She wears stained and filthy, but once white robes. Her tangled hair, long and stringy, hide dead and dry flowers in the nests. Her mouth curves upward in a deranged smile. Pubert knows who she is from a portrait.

"Ophelia?" Pubert squints into her eyes only to find black voids, "Are you my aunt?"

The witch cackles as the flames snuff out and the pool dries, the veins withering and breaking, she disappears into the darkness. Pubert stands alone.

"Why would Ophelia seek corruption?" Pubert asks of himself, knowing not the answer. He gets a chill in response.


End file.
